culinarius

Forms

culīnārius (feminine culīnāria, neuter culīnārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin culīna (“kitchen”) + -ārius.^[2][1][3] Etymonline connects culīna with coquō (“to cook”), calling it an unexplained variant.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is as a noun meaning a kitchen servant, in Scribonius Largus.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective, “of the kitchen”, it is found in Fronto, where a fish is served by the kitchen staff; the TLL calls that reading uncertain.^[5][3] English borrowed it as culinary “of the kitchen” in the 1630s, and used it of the art of cookery from the 1650s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus uses it as a noun for a kitchen servant.^[2][7]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it as an adjective, of kitchen staff.^[5][3][7]
• 1630s – Borrowed into English as culinary.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the kitchen, culinary.^[8][5][3]

Noun

1. A kitchen servant.^[2][8][5]

Related words

• English culinary

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press